Absent Hearts Can Still Be Broken
by jouissance
Summary: Regina confesses to Robin that Henry is her son. One shot. Set after Regina kisses and Robin and before Henry gets his memories back. OutlawQueen


I've been trapped in my apartment for two days during Snowmageddon. What's a girl to do but watch OUAT on DVD? This little diddy popped into my head and since I'm going through OutlawQueen withdrawal I figured I'd post something. OneShot. Enjoy! Also, reviews make me happy.

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Robinhood sat at the edge of his camp poking at a stubborn fire when she approached him from behind. "May I?" Regina asked, flexing her fingers.

"Be my guest." Sparks shot from her gloved hand and the campfire quickly came to life. "_That_ must come in handy," Robin said with a grin spreading across his face. He sat back against a tree and extended his arm for Regina to join him. Regina simply shrugged. Explaining the perks and perils of her power was not something she had the energy for tonight. She all too willingly accepted Robin's embrace and curled into his chest.

"Tell me what's troubling you?" Robin asked as he absently tangled his fingers through her hair.

"Oh, you know," Regina sighed. "My long lost sister is the Wicked Witch. She has an army of flying monkeys that are abducting people from my town. And she's hell bent on destroying me for reasons I can't fathom." She laughed slightly at the absurdity of it all. "And there is that pesky year no one can seem to remember." She turned her face down into his shoulder letting her hair hide the cracking façade of her face. The small gesture didn't go unnoticed by the thief.

"That's all true, but that's not what's troubling you." Robin tucked her fallen hair behind her ear and hooked her chin with his finger, bringing her eyes to his. He wasn't surprised to see the unshed tears reflecting the fire light.

"It's nothing. I'm fine." She absently wiped her eyes. "The smoke's just in my eyes." It sounded week, even to her, but she wedged her forehead back into his neck and willed him not to press the issue. Of course he wouldn't let it go. This infuriating man that knew just what buttons to push, that somehow smashed through her walls just by touching her hair. He sat up, forcing her with him. She scooted closer to the fire until Robin was sure she could feel the singe of the flames and stared at the heart of it.

"Regina, you want to talk. I want to listen. Tell me what's going on." He stayed behind her unmoving; afraid she would shatter or run if he touched her.

"Henry." She said to the flames and was taken aback by the sharp pain in her chest and how hard it was to say her son's name.

"Henry?" Robin questioned, turning the name over in his head and trying to make a connection. "Emma's son?" Regina's head nodded slightly. "I don't understand."

"It's complicated." She half laughed, not trusting herself to look from the flames. Robin sat silently behind her for several minutes, waiting her out. He was relentless, Regina half admired that. Of course she also half despised him for it. "He doesn't know me," she finally managed mostly to herself. She wasn't sure if Robin even heard her until his arms were around her waist, pulling her back.

"You had a relationship with him before?" He moved so that he faced her.

Regina stared at her hands. "You could say that. I raised him. I'm his mother." The tears fell and she didn't try to stop them. Robin's hands covered hers and held tightly. Suddenly she needed to keep talking. She'd been holding this in for too long. "Emma is his birth mother. I adopted him when he was an infant. I raised him for the past 11 years, but to break the curse I had to let him go. It was the only way to stop it. It was the only way to save him and everyone else. He had to forget me. Emma had to take him. We were being sent back to the Enchanted Forest, I was never supposed to see him again. He had to forget me." She couldn't stop. It was all coming out in sobs and gasps as she sat on the forest floor with this man holding her hands tightly between them. She paused long enough to fake a few shaking breaths. Robin wasn't sure if she was talking to him or herself, but he knew she needed to get it out so he remained silent and waited for her to continue.

"As for as Henry's concerned, he's lived his entire life with Emma as his mother. I changed his memories, gave him new ones with Emma, and erased myself. I wanted him to have that, to be happy. I never thought I'd see him again. But now he's here. I see him every day. I see the baby that kept me up for months. I see his first steps. I hear his first words and his cries for me in the middle of the night. And he sees Mayor Mills. He looks right through me."

She couldn't look at Robin, couldn't risk what she might see in his eyes. Instead, Regina stared straight at the fire that was slowing burning out beside them and hoped the darkness hid her ruined face. "I should go," she said suddenly, pulling her hands free of his. She'd bared entirely too much of her soul tonight and now she needed to hide, but as she started to stand she was stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder.

"You should stay." Robin took a chance. He knew he had drawn Regina far out of her comfort zone already and that she was liable to vanish in a swirl of smoke or turn knock him out and run. He may have only known her for a short while, but he knew that she wasn't a person who let down her walls easily and he could tell that she was leaving out of nothing more than embarrassment for coming apart in front of him.

"I don't know what you're expecting to happen tonight, thief…" Regina bit out the words hoping to change the mood, but she couldn't control the tremble in her voice. His hand moved to cup her cheek, gently wiping away the tears that remained. Against her better judgment, or perhaps for the first time for it, Regina leaned into his touch.

"I'm _expecting_ that even the Queen shouldn't be roaming the woods at night when there are vicious creatures and a witch hunting her," Robin gave her an out: a reason to stay without admitting that she simply didn't want to be alone. "And that perhaps, she shouldn't turn down the offer of a relatively safe and surprisingly comfortable place to sleep." Regina finally lifted her head to meet his gaze. Robin's eyes bore into her, completely ignoring the swollen eyes, and ruined makeup, conveying more than either of them could ever say.

Regina trembled at the intensity of his gaze, but she couldn't look away. He was a safe place. She had forgotten what that felt like and how much needed it. "I thought it would hurt less without my heart," she confessed, glancing briefly at the spot she knew he had hidden it, "but it doesn't." She smiled at him through newly forming tears.

"It would appear, even absent hearts can still be broken." Robin pulled her closer, and as much to her surprise as his she came willingly. He kissed her lips gently before wrapping her tightly in his arms.

"I just want my son back." Robin held her impossibly tighter and she pressed her ear to his beating heart, letting herself relax into its steady rhythm.

"You'll have him," he said matter-of-factly. He loosened his grip enough to look down at her.

"You sound awfully sure of yourself." It had been too long since anyone had believed in her. She cleared her throat and wiped her eyes before round three of emotional outbursts had a chance to take hold.

"Not at all." Robin said, once again holding her tightly. "I am, however, fully confident in you. Your son will remember you, Regina." They remained that way until the fire was all but gone, the coolness of the night drifting over them. Robin felt Regina sway slightly in his arms finally giving into her exhaustion.

Regina laughed in spite of herself as Robin's grip instantly altered to hold her up. Emotions were exhausting, which was one of the many reasons she tried to avoid them. "I believe you said something about a place to sleep?"

"This way, You're Majesty." They both laughed at his use of her title. She was hardly a queen with him and that was what she was most grateful for. This impossible man leading her through the forest had somehow found Regina under all the darkness and guises she had lived with for so long.

"Thank you," Regina whispered as she curled next to him. He kissed the top of her head in response and held her hand firmly down against his heart. "You were right."

"About what," he muttered already half asleep.

"Surprisingly comfortable."


End file.
